EW! A Blog.

The dramatic music … the dramatic opening. "It is a place time seems to have left behind. A neighborhood literally seen by thousands of eyes every day … yet seemingly noticed by none … a dwelling where death at times is nothing more than an opportunity to recycle life … welcome everyone to THE WHIT!"

I don't think I was supposed to giggle as much as I did. "It's a heartbeat formed by the symbiotic relationships of the inhabitants … " The voiceover kills me. Lots of great Whit cameos as well as Mayor Kitty Piercy, Police Chief Pete Kerns, videographer Tim Lewis and more.

Perhaps the most famous and lucrative cat celebrikitty, the round-faced Maru (his name does mean "circle" in Japanese) is back trying to figure out his new hot pink wheels. More of his hijinx can be found at maruthecat.tumblr.com and fans can "ask Maru anything," but don't expect full feline disclosure because Maru and his human companion Mogumogu are quite elusive. According to a recent article in Wired:

He is 5 years old and lives in an undisclosed Japanese city that is, by consensual rumor, almost certainly not Tokyo, because no indoor cat in Tokyo has that much space to jump into boxes, especially not the bigger ones. Maru has upwards of 168 million YouTube views and, according to other rumors, has generated enough ad revenue to buy his owner a new apartment. His is the seventh-most-subscribed YouTube channel in Japan.

Many members of the cat viral video world believe that Maru's 15 minutes (what is that in cat time?) are nearly up. Maybe Eugene will be home to the next famous pussy cat...

Both public radio and public television get their federal funding (small but crucial percentages of their budgets, administrators say, which are often earmarked for under-served and rural populations) from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for its part, gets a bit under $500 million in taxpayer dollars a year to distribute.

No small amount of change by itself, but in the grand scheme of the federal budget, not so much. It’s a few days of war in Afghanistan, according to many estimates. Just to put it in perspective.

As to the percentage of that $500 million that Big Bird actually pockets? Pretty tiny.

5. Romney knows all about lying because he's got 5 sons. Wha?

Despite his non-pants-shitting performance, there were still a few moments of off-putting weirdness in the debate. Specifically, this quote:

"I've got five boys. I'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I'll believe it."

I'm now concerned with Mitt Romney's merry band of sociopaths roaming the country.

Speaking of lies, Mitt Romney used last night to resurrect the idea of Obamacare being akin to a government takeover of medical care, which was Politifact's 2010 Lie of the Year. Yes, Mitt Romney is very familiar with falsehoods that get repeated over and over again as fact.

Ramirez is the president of PCUN and “struggled alongside Cesar Chavez in the California grape strikes of the 1960s and 1970s,” say organizers. “He has a deep history in the workers justice movement in the Pacific Northwest.”

The event notice email goes on to say:

“The ethics of social justice, cooperation and human dignity form the framework for learning about the widespread and illegal practice of not paying workers for their work. Oregonians are coming together to call for fair and sustainable agriculture policies.

“Wage theft is the widespread and illegal practice of refusing to pay workers for all or part of their work. Wage theft happens with employers pay less than the minimum wage, don't pay overtime, steal tips, require employees to work ‘off the clock,’ or fail to pay at all.

“In a recent five-year period, over 8,000 wage claims were filed with Oregon's state labor bureau, totaling $24.5 million. This represents only a fraction of the actual incidents of wage theft —thousands more go unreported. In a national study, two-thirds of low-wage workers reported having been victims of wage theft in the last week!

“This widespread problem often flies under the radar — but has a huge impact on the workers who don't get paid, as well as on other workers whose standards are undermined, honest employers who have to compete with scofflaws, communities robbed of local spending, and taxpayers who have to make up for the taxes that can't be collected on unpaid wages.”

The controversial coal train issue is coming before the Board of Lane County Commissioners tomorrow (10/3), according to an agenda item buried under "County Administration." Though the issue has been in the news and is a source of debate among Lane County and Eugene residents, it appears no effort was made by the county to publicize the vote. The upcoming 10/8 Eugene City Council vote on the issue has been a source of controversy and of news stories in the R-G and EW for months.

The county's vote will take place tomorrow at the Public Service Building, 125 East 8th Avenue, and public comments can be made at the beginning of the meeting, which starts at 9 am. Commissioners can also be contacted via phone or email through the county's website.

Click the image to view the agenda on the county's website.

Though as of Tuesday morning, one day before the vote, the "view materials" link still does not have the information about the vote, EW obtained the supporting documents on the "Port of Coos Bay Bulk Terminal Support" issue (See below). One of them (Exhibit D) is a white paper summary of the coal controversy and the other (Attachment D) is a resolution that specifically mentions the shipping of coal and concludes:

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Lane County Board recognizes the responsible development activities of the Port of Coos Bay related to increasing its ability to deliver, store, and transfer bulk commodities to the global marketplace.

ADOPTED this ______ day of October, 2012

EW has contacted County Administrator Liane Richardson, Board Chair Sid Leiken, Intergovernmental Relations Manager Alex Cuyler, who is scheduled to bring up the issue, and the county public information officer for more information on the coal train vote and its scheduling.

The white paper that accompanies the resolution says:

Coal dust contains heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, benzene, mercury, and lead. Project developers say they would use a “surfactant,” a sticky spray on top of the rail cars, to limit coal dust. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway conducted extensive testing on 1,633 coal trains and found that sealants sprayed on loaded coal cars dramatically reduced coal dust – in some cases to zero. Increased train traffic also means increased diesel exhaust. In Oregon, over 130 doctors have asked Governor Kitzhaber to order a comprehensive “health impact assessment.” Physicians opposing coal export are primarily concerned with the effect of diesel particulates on pulmonary and neurological functions.

In Eugene, the Trainsong, River Road, Bethel, and Whiteaker neighborhoods are particularly vulnerable. Other health and safety concerns include noise pollution, increased railroad mortality, and obstruction of emergency vehicle access. In addition, the accumulation of coal dust could damage crops, contaminate water, pollute the air, and poison the wildlife. Coal dust also corrodes and undermines rail infrastructure, so coal trains have a high risk of derailment. Five coal trains derailed in the U.S. during the summer of 2012, one just outside the Columbia River Gorge in Washington.

But according to the county's proposed resolution, this is mitigated because:

Local coal train opponentswere a little surprised to discover that the Lane County Board Commissioners will be voting on Wednesday Oct. 3 on supporting the Coos Bay Bulk Terminal development and the accompanying planned coal trains. It's a pretty a hot topic, one the public has had a lot of opinions on, and the upcoming Oct. 8 Eugene City Council vote on the issue has been well-publicized. Lane County buried the vote on the planned resolution in an agenda item.

EW asked Intergovernmental Relations Manager (or as he says on his Twitter profile, lobbyist) about tomorrow's resolution. Cuyler preferred to respond by email, so here's our questions and his answers.

What significance does the county commission vote have, either by supporting or not supporting the Coos Bay Terminal proposal?

The County Board of Commissioner will take action on a resolution, which expresses their opinion, but does not carry the same weight as an order. A resolution is non-binding and unenforcible statement. The Port may use it as they seek to advance their operations. As a partner to the Port, the Board has signed a number of letters of support for specific, and more general funding opportunities. In August 2008, Lane County was at the Surface Transportation Board hearing on transferring ownership (actually the hearing was on opposing the petition of the previous operator to dismantle the line) of the short line railroad to the Port. The Board’s agenda setting team is aware the Eugene City Council will be taking up a related issue on October 8.

The resolution as worded on the website is in favor of support how was that decision made and by whom?

The Lane County Legislative Committee examined the white paper last week. Discussions at that meeting informed the content of the resolution. For example, staff asked whether the resolution should address coal trains, Coos County’s economic condition, or the Port. The committee’s focus was on the Port’s bulk terminal expansion proposal. As with most resolutions and orders, staff drafted the language for the full Board to consider. Tomorrow, the Board may choose to modify it, abandon it, or adopt it as written.

The resolution mentions things put into place to restrict the coal dust, but has there been anything ensuring that can and will be done? I believe [Congressman Peter] DeFazio said that might have to be done legislatively?

The Port’s documents are clear environmental considerations were one of three “top weighted” issues. While the Port does not regulate coal dust standards, it appears contractually and operationally, they have committed to minimizing fugitive emissions. For example, the site design for the bulk terminal involves covered loading/unloading. The rail car’s being proposed are “rotary dump” with the bottom of the car being completely solid (at one of their early briefings with us, I learned that most “dust” comes from the bottom of a traditional, bottom unloading car).

It’s a pretty controversial issue, why was the public not notified? The agenda item doesn't mention coal trains, though the white paper and the actual resolution do.

The Lane County Board of Commissioners routinely considers controversial issues at its regular, publicly noticed meetings. The issue at hand is the bulk handling terminal. The white paper and resolution reference the materials to be handled, including coal.

DA Paul Frasier tells The Eugene Register-Guard. "For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it’s so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities,”

The details are little Stephen King-ish.

First, the family member found Garner’s dentures on the ground. He then noticed pieces of Garner’s body scattered throughout the enclosure, Frasier said.

While investigators are certain that the hogs consumed most of Garner’s body, they do not know how he died. An investigation is continuing.

Any time someone dies I think it's tragic, but there are so many things ever so wrong with this incident. Vegans might disagree; they might think being eaten by a 700-pound pig is karmic payback for bacon. Or more precisely for the upcoming bacon shortage that was caused by folks going hog-wild and slaughtering their pigs early thanks to the drought in much of the U.S. and in Europe.

Let's start with the 700-pound pig thing; that, as the spider writes in the web in everyone's favorite childhood book about a cheerful and plucky swine, is "some pig."

I bet Wilbur would NEVER eat a farmer.

The R-G reports:

John Killefer, who heads the Animal and Rangeland Sciences Department at Oregon State University in Corvallis, called the incident involving Terry Garner both “very unfortunate” and highly unusual.

Although domestic hogs are not typically known to be as aggressive as their feral cousins, “there is some degree of danger associated with any animal,” Killefer said. He added that pigs “are more omnivorous than other farm animals, (such as) cows.”

Killefer said 700-pound pigs such as the ones that Garner kept at his farm for breeding purposes are abnormally large.

And just what was the unfortunate Mr. Garner doing with the 700-pound pigs? According to the news story, he had a boar named Teddy and several rather large sows, and he bred them to sell to 4-H kids. Yup, there are kids in rural, coastal Oregon raising Wilburs of their own, that are descended from Teddy and his fellow human-eating sows. No word in the story as to what to happen to Teddy and his crew, but let's just saying making THOSE particular pigs into pork would be so, so wrong.

I don't know why all the marijuana videos keep finding their way to my screen, y'all, but this video is ticking up in the page views and the pro-Measure 80 folks would probably like you to see it before you vote.

And here is the latest in kitten videos. The makers swear no kitties were harmed (see below).

Before you go all crazy on me for "hurting" cats, you should know that the cats were handled with GREAT care. We decided to keep the shot tight on the cats so that they did not need to be airborne very long. The cats were tossed a few feet into an enormous and ultra soft sheepskin blanket. The cats were treated like royalty. They were fed gourmet cat food and lots of water. We took many breaks where the kittens rested and played in the shade. They were full of energy the entire shoot which lasted a mere one hour. This video was shot six months ago and the cats are alive and in perfect health today. I love cats and would never even consider harming them...so please stop sending me death threats. Anyways..

"So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

I wonder what EcoSalon and I missed? We probably don't want to know. Barf.

Cascadia Forest Defenders are probably most know for tree sits and occupying government offices — most recently over logging in the Elliott State Forest, but when it comes to logging, mills and biomass plants are a part of the equation, so today CFD is occupying a billboard near the Seneca Sawmill/Seneca Sustainable energy plant. Here is the press release:

ACTIVISTS OCCUPY BILLBOARD OUTSIDE EUGENE POLLUTER SENECA SAWMILL

Eugene, OR- This afternoon members of Cascadia Forest Defenders occupied a billboard outside of the West Eugene Seneca Sawmill with a banner that read, “SENECA JONES: BAILOUTS, CLEARCUTS, & POLLUTING WEST EUGENE”.

Seneca Biomass is a wood burning power plant in West Eugene that opened in the spring of 2011 amid public protest. Though the project has been marketed as “green energy,” Seneca Biomass failed its first EPA air pollution test last fall. The plant releases an estimated 17,900 pounds of air toxins into West Eugene Neighborhoods annually —t his in addition to the 73,000 pounds already released annually from the mill itself. There are three schools within three miles of the Seneca Biomass facility.

While there are many industrial polluters in West Eugene, it so happens that Seneca Jones receives public funding for its dirty energy project. Seneca currently receives 10 million dollars in tax credits from the state of Oregon under the Business Energy Tax Credit Program. Seneca is now suing the state for an additional one million to offset the production costs of their new plant.

“They get paid, we get polluted,” says west Eugene resident and Cascadia Forest Defender Grace Warner. “It would be nice if the state would give that 11 million to helping schools-- not to polluting them.”

Seneca is also responsible for much of the clear-cut logging in Oregon public forests. Seneca is one of the top three purchasers of timber sales in the Elliott State Forest, where companies clear-cut up to 850 acres every year. While the State Land Board justifies the destruction of Oregon's last remnants of coastal temperate rainforest to benefit public schools, logging in the Elliott contributes to less than one percent of the State's annual school budget.